Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters Preview

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We get new single and multiplayer impressions of the portable game.

By Jeff Haynes

Whenever a beloved franchise makes the jump from the console to the portable screen, fans are usually nervous about the result. Will the gameplay that made it a hit transition over well to the handheld? Can the same number of features be found in the title? Will it look good on the small screen. Well, if the latest build of Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters is any indication, these titles might be as good as the console titles, with the added advantage of being able to take it on the go. At a recent Sony Media Day event we got our hands on the game, and ran through both the single and multiplayer modes to see how the game's coming along.

Size Matters is an original Ratchet and Clank adventure and the first title from High Impact Games, a company comprised of former Insomniac employees. Set after the events of Ratchet: Deadlocked, Ratchet and Clank have landed on the planet of Pokitaru for some much needed R&R. Completely burned out on the idea of being a galactic hero, Ratchet is simply looking forward to a lazy time on the beach. However, this idea is totally shot down as soon as a little girl named Luna approaches the duo for help on her school project. Unfortunately for Luna, she's kidnapped, forcing Ratchet and Clank to find out who's behind her abduction. Of course, things aren't as it seems, and the two heroes are going to face a large number of enemies across the entire galaxy once again.

One thing that players will notice with the single player experience is that the designers tried very hard to keep the feel of the PS2 game on the PSP. As a result, they made the experience to be as similar to the PS2 controls as possible, even though the PSP doesn't have a second analog stick or L2 and R2 buttons. In fact, we found that we could pick the game up and immediately become familiar with the camera, control scheme and weaponry. Speaking of weaponry, a number of returning and new weapons will be included in the game. Apart from his ubiquitous wrench, we actually noticed a number of weapons, such as the Bee Mine Glove, which spits out a swarm of robotic bees from a metallic beehive shell, an Acid Bomb that splatters acid pools around the environment, and the Laser Tracer, which lets you literally burn anything (such as your name) into a material or an enemy.

Ratchet will also have a number of gadgets to help him out in Size Matters. Obviously, he'll have familiar items like his Swingshot to move over gaps. Ratchet will also grab something known as a Sprout-a-Matic, which will allow him to grab plants and direct them across maps to do different tasks. In one situation that we saw, we were able to take one plant and transfer it to another location, and by triggering the Sprout-a-Matic, we were able to make it grow. Ratchet will also be able to equip armor, although not in the same way as it's been handled in the console titles. There are four separate classes for your armor: Helmet, Body, Gloves and Boots, each of which gives additional protection. Equipping a full set of armor will provide special effects, such as enveloping Ratchet's wrench and footsteps in fire or spreading freezing crystals. Players can also mix and match armor pieces for different effects.

Once you've gone through the single player experience, you may want to try out the multiplayer title. Supporting both Ad Hoc and Infrastructure, players will be able to play standard deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag modes. Every map will be huge, and feature a number of hidden areas that have multiplayer weapon mods as well as weapons scattered around. While there won't be any bots that you can bring into a multiplayer match to fill out the free slots in a game, you will have lots of ambient enemies to fight off along with your human opponents.

It also features a new mode called Iron Lombax, which puts players on teams attempting to complete different tasks before their opponents do. Creatively, each Iron Lombax mission changes depending on the map you choose, and each one is full of multiple steps to complete, so you should have an lot of fun playing against opponents. For instance, one has you trying to turn Martian cows into hamburger by sucking them up with a Suck Cannon and delivering them to a machine to be converted into patties. Once that's been done, you transfer the boxes of patties to delivery trucks, and the first one to a set number wins. Of course, you can steal any one of the items, from the cows to the boxes of patties, as well as shoot your opponents. We'll have much more on Size Matters soon.